BUSINESS PLANRevised January 2012

IntroductionThe mission of this innovative, life-changing

network is to provide intelligent programming that

is informative, educational,entertaining, inspiring, and

empowering for its African Americanaudience. Black Television News Channel’s

(BTNC) original programming targets a dynamic,high-growth, loyal consumer who finds himself,today, marginalized to soundbites concerningsports, crime or entertainment by the mainstreamnews media and is grossly underserved by cabletelevision’s programming options.

Black Television News ChannelExecutive Summary of Business Plan

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The development of Black Television NewsChannel’s operational model and programmingconcepts began several years earlier, when aregional news channel partnered with an AfricanAmerican entertainment network to produce anightly one-hour newscast. This pilot newscastwas delivered to more than 10 million cable

television homes during an 18-month trialperiod. Simultaneously, feature

“news-talk” programs targetingAfrican Americans were

produced anddistributed to

approximately two million cable homes throughoutthe State of Florida. This multi-million dollar trialperiod not only enabled BTNC’s management toevaluate the demand for its programming, but alsooffered an opportunity to create valuable newsgathering “content” partnerships. Likewise, thetrial period enabled BTNC’s management to testnew IP video transmission platforms and forgestrong marketing and promotional alliances withinthe black faith-based community, as well as withAfrican American business leaders, entertainersand lawmakers.

Black Television News Channel’s experiencedmanagement team is led by former Congressman

J.C. Watts, Jr. Mr. Watts is a graduate of theUniversity of Oklahoma’s College of Journalism, acelebrated athlete, an ordained minister, a populartelevision commentator and a successfulentrepreneur. Mr. Watts offers BTNC a lifetime ofexperience and relationships in business, politicaland black communities. Bob Brillante, co-manager, and Frank Watson, vice president/generalmanager, are in charge of BTNC’s operations. Mr.Brillante is a 35-year cable television veteran. In1998, Mr. Brillante founded Florida’s NewsChannel (FNC), building the nation’s first all-digital news gathering and television productionfacility. FNC pioneered the use of high-tech

virtual reality news environments and switchedbroadband video transmissions. Mr. Brillante’screative use of content partnerships and high-techtelevision transmission and productiontechnologies propelled Florida’s News Channel tothe forefront of the nation’s regional newschannels. Mr. Watson has 30 years of experiencein broadcast operations, and he has managedground-up projects involving leading edgetechnology in radio, television and the Internet.

BTNC promises attractive equity growth andstrong cash flow for its investors because of its (1)launch to more than 35 million TV households; (2)tested and proven programming models; (3) costsaving content partnerships; (4) operationalefficiencies and multiple revenue streams. BTNCwill launch as a public interest channel for a

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temporary three-year period. At the beginning ofthe network’s fourth year of operation, BTNC willconvert to a traditional for-profit commercialchannel. Once BTNC converts to a traditional“full” commercial channel, the network plans tocollect a $.14 per subscriber per month license fee.Collection of license fees will increase revenues bymore than $69 million annually. Revenuesgenerated by BTNC’s eMall merchandising service,mobile streaming, commercial production services,HDTV simulcast license fees, and video news andentertainment podcasts are not represented on theTen Years Source and Use of Funds financialforecast. BTNC’s healthy subscriber base androbust subscriber growth are at the foundation ofthe network’s strong equity valuation. BTNC’splan to launch as a public interest channel willprovide the network 22.5 million satellite TVhomes at launch. In addition, BTNC’s ability toreach the nation’s African American householdsthrough its faith-based and historical blackcolleges marketing alliances promises strongsubscriber lift for its satellite distributionpartners, Dish Network and DirecTV.Cable television’s multi-

system operators (MSOs) such as Comcast andTime Warner Cable were enticed to providecarriage for BTNC’s programming for two obviousreasons: (1) MSOs want to avoid the migration oftheir 17 million African American cable TVcustomers from terrestrial cable service to satelliteTV; and (2) MSOs are required to satisfy diversityand pro-competition legislative and regulatoryobligations. This regulatory oversight has beenadapted to protect independent networks such asBTNC. The recent NBC/Universal acquisition byComcast Cable has focused the attention ofregulators and policy makers on the current dearthof cable programming options available to thenation’s most veracious consumers of cable tvprogramming.

Strong Equity GrowthDuring the past five years, the sale of

established cable TV networks has ranged in valuebetween $54 and $60 per subscriber. Using thisprice per subscriber benchmark, BTNC’s valuationat launch will be an impressive $1.8 to $2.0 billion.With these numbers in mind, BTNC is seeking $15million for startup operating expenses; and anamount significant to cover operating cash flowchallenges during the Public Interest launch period.

Ten Year Sources & Uses of Funds Forecast

Unlike the network’soperational expenses that canbe controlled by anexperienced managementteam, enhanced

underwriting and advertising sales are greatlyinfluenced by external factors. Therefore, BTNC’srevenue forecast is based on the following fourconsiderations:1. Most newly launched networks tend to overestimate the market’s response to its relativelyunproven product without a history of verifiableaudience ratings.

2. The sale of BTNC’s overnight time periodsto prepaid gospel programmers,

inspirational television ministries andcommercial programming brokersprovides a predictable revenuestream. Adult African Americansare an extremely attractive targetaudience for gospel andinspirational programmers.BTNC has already received anmulti-million dollar offer to

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In 2010, national TV (network, cable, and syndicated)advertising dollars aimed at African American audiences wereprimarily dedicated to cable TV, which saw increases of 17%.Network and syndicated TV saw some declines.

Total advertising expenditures spent in African American media reached$1.9 billion in 2010, increasing 3% versus 2009.

Source: Nielsen Report, “The State of the African-American Consumer,” September 2011.

Refer to the Financial section of

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purchase its overnight advertising availabilities.3. Several marquee brand companies are expressinginterest in sponsoring programs on BTNC,including those companies that participated in thetrial period. This interest is extremelyencouraging.4. The availability and growth of culturally-specificadvertising dollars targeting African Americansbetween the ages of 25 and 54 years of age, as wellas the absence of original television programsserving this audience today, creates an attractiveenvironment for BTNC’s market entry.

Subscription Television’s MostValuable Customers

Currently, African Americans spend nearly $5billion per year on subscription television services.

This amount constitutes the majority of theAfrican American consumer’s entertainment dollar.African Americans are also the nation’s fastestgrowing group of on-line service subscribers; thenumerical majority in the top markets for bundledservices; and, as a group, 28% of the nation’spremium service subscribers to services such asHome Box Office® and Showtime®. AfricanAmericans subscribe to these services at twice therate of any other group. It is not surprising, giventhis segment’s heavy media usage, brand loyalty,and high discretionary spending, that culturally-specific advertising targeting African Americans isnow a $2 billion market—a market that has tripledin the last 15 years.

African Americans are the heaviest and mostloyal television viewers. Overall, AfricanAmericans watch 60 hours of television per week,between 40% and 50% more than any other group.Consequently, African Americans watch 44% moread-supported television, including 43% moredaytime television and 63% more late nighttelevision. African Americans also watch 44%more ad-supported basic cable, 28% more cablenetwork news, and 7% more television news

overall. However, none of the currently availabletelevision news channels place among the top 20rated networks for African Americans.

In addition to watching more television moreoften, African Americans have significantlydifferent viewing habits from any other culture.African Americans are less dependent on“appointment” viewing habits, according to a 2012Nielsen Research Study. In other words, AfricanAmericans are a perfect fit for a 24-hour newsprogramming service because they tune inthroughout the day and evening rather than simplyduring certain “regularly scheduled” programhours.

It seems that the African American communityis not only a highly valued audience for television’s advertisers, but also a highly interested audience.According to a study conducted among 4,000

adults by Jack Myers MediaBusiness Report, African Americans, alongwith watching significantly more television onaverage than any other group, are also significantlyless likely to skip through commercials andsignificantly more likely to stop and view televisioncommercials.

According to the Myers report, AfricanAmericans are also more likely to have a DVRthan average TV viewers. Yet, only 53% of AfricanAmericans who own a DVR say they skip all ormost commercials, compared to 83% of Caucasianaudiences and 63% of Hispanic viewers.

A Powerful, High GrowthTarget Market

Although the nation’s Hispanic populationgrowth has exceeded the population growth ofAfrican Americans during recent years, AfricanAmericans are, economically, the largest andfastest growing market in the country today. TheAfrican American market represents more than 43million people, more than 19 million householdsand more than one trillion in buying power.African American median household income is thehighest ever recorded; and this income level is

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growing at a faster rate than any other group, atrend that has been sustained every year for the past15 years. African American homeownership reachedan all-time high. For the first time in the nation’shistory, more than 50% of the African Americanpopulation owns a home. According to the 2011Nielsen Report on African American earnings, thenumber of African American households earning$75,000 or more grew by 63.9%, a rate 11.7% greaterthan the change in the overall population, between2000 and 2009. Additionally, the percentage ofhouseholds earning $50,000 or less has decreased,representing a full shift upward in the income of theoverall community.

Even during these troubling economic times,the impressive growth of the African Americanmarket is expected to continue into the foreseeablefuture. The African American population isprojected to grow at three times the rate of the non-minority population for the next 12 years, resultingin an African American population of more than47.5 million people by year 2020. Likewise, more

than 70% of the increase in national purchasingpower during this period will come from AfricanAmericans, potentially making the AfricanAmerican economy the sixth largest in the worldby 2020.

The explosive growth of black entrepreneurshipis creating new advertising and merchandisingopportunities every day. Black-owned businessesare the fastest growing segments of the Americaneconomy, according to the U.S. CommerceDepartment’s Minority Business DevelopmentAgency. The number of black-owned businesseshas grown by an impressive 45% since 1997, morethan four times the national rate for all businesses.

Dissatisfaction of the TargetMarket with Current ProductOfferings

It seems that while the nation is becoming morediverse, broadcast television—in particulartelevision news—is not. A majority of AfricanAmericans believe that television news focuses

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negatively on their communities and perpetuatesstereotypes. African Americans feel they are onlyrepresented in stories involving crime, drugs, andblack-on-white homicide. Although examples ofth is disservice abound, a few of the more tellingstatistics show that:

• While homicides within the African Americancommunity decreased by 33%

over the past decade,

televisionnews coverage ofthose homicidesincreased 473%;

• While less than 1% of all arrests are black-on-white homicides, thesearrests represent more than 30% oftelevision crime news coverage; and

• African American spokespersons tend to be “ghetto-ized” to sports and entertainmentnews coverage. A one week audit of television news sound

bites on the economy, foreign affairs, politics,and sports and entertainment shows thefollowing:

News Topic White BlackSound Bites Sound Bites

Foreign Affairs 99 1Economics 86 1Electoral Politics 79 0Sports & Entertainment 35 11Source: Entman-Rojecki Index of Race and theMedia

Dissatisfaction with traditional television newsamong African Americans is very real…andgrowing. Almost unanimously, African Americansare aware of the importance of how they arerepresented in tele-vision newscasts, with morethan 70% of those polled saying it is “veryimportant” to have a fair portrayal of AfricanAmericans in television news. More than 80% of

thosepolled say it is“very important”to have a newschannel programmed forAfrican Americans.

Considerable Demand for the Product

As mentioned previously, more than 80%of African Americans polled say it is “veryimportant” to have a news channel programmedfor African Americans. African Americans, whocomprise roughly 13% of the general population,will switch to culturally-specific programming andaway from non-African American orientedprogramming with a 250% greater frequency thanany other consumer segment. Unfortunately, theprogramming African Americans have beenprovided, to date, is merely a “TV ghetto” ofsitcoms.7

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African American TV viewers are extremelyloyal to programming that accurately representsthem. Each of the top 10 rated shows amongAfrican Americans features black casts and blacklead characters.

Considerable research has been conducted overthe past decade concerning the lack of AfricanAmerican cable programming and the predictablecry for parity from within the African Americancommunity. Much of this research appears inacademic journals and media trade publications. Asampling of this research has been compiled byBTNC and is available upon request. Several studiesconducted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrinalook into the impact of negative “imagery” andstereotyping of African Americans by mainstreammedia news, particularly as it relates to political,economic and social policy. The findings arealarming!

Research conducted by Nielsen and Simmonsdemonstrates an attractive opportunity to createnew and incremental news audiences among AfricanAmerican women and among middle-aged African

American men. Even as early as 2001, aquantitative and qualitative viewing studyconducted by Florida State University found thatthe representation of African American women inthe audience for Florida’s News Channel indexedfar above their representation in the overall viewingpopulation. African American women comprised22% of all women in the markets surveyed.However, as a percentage of the weekly audiencefor Florida’s News Channel, African Americanwomen ranged between 24.4% and 45.8%. Thequalitative side of the study reveals that many ofthese female African American viewers watchedFlorida’s News Channel exclusively for their news.Before the launch of Florida’s News Channel,these African American females had been lighter,or non-existent, news viewers. The respondents citeFlorida’s News Channel’s de-emphasis of violentcrime coverage; the presence of an AfricanAmerican lead anchor, Gordon Graham; and livecoverage of events with particular interest toAfrican Americans as the reasons for their viewingbehavior.

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African Americans watch more television thanany other group. Not only does the averageAfrican American household have four or moretelevisions, but also spends an average of sevenhours 12 minutes each day–or 213 hours permonth–watching them. This amounts toabout 40% more viewing time thanthe rest of the population.

Source: Nielsen Report, “The State of the African-American Consumer,” September 2011.

African American adult women continue to bea prime demographic target for Black TelevisionNews Channel. African American adult women arealso a prime target for culturally-specificadvertising on BTNC.

Industry and Market TrendsSupport the Introduction of the Product

At the center of the business case for launchingBlack Television News Channel is the strongoverall demand for news programming and thesubsequent high profitability of news channels.Also at the center of the business case forlaunching BTNC is the fact that AfricanAmericans are both subscription television’s mostprofitable consumers and subscription television’smost severely under-served customers. For thecable television industry that serves 17 million

African American households, the risks involved innot meeting the demand of African Americans fora more representative news network are enormous.

On the broadcast network side of the industry,a limitless news appetite manifests itself in theconsistently high ratings of news “magazine”shows like 60 Minutes, Dateline and 20/20—and, tosome extent, the popularity of non-scripted“reality” shows like Survivor and The Apprentice.However, none of these broadcast shows accuratelyrepresents African Americans nor targets AfricanAmericans as a viewing audience. The same cansaid of cable news networks.

Black Entertainment Television (BET), thelong-time single “outpost” of African Americanprogramming, essentially abandoned newscoverage and the African American audience over25-years-old when the network revamped itsprogramming line-up following its acquisition bymedia giant Viacom.

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An environmental scan of today’s televisionprogramming reveals a sizeable gap waiting to befilled by news-oriented programming that targetsAfrican American adults abandoned by BET andculturally misrepresented by mainstream televisionnews. Furthermore, studies show that AfricanAmerican targeted advertising, today, exceeds $4billion, despite the relative absence of televisionvenues serving black adults. Magna Global’sDirector of Industry Analysis, Brian Wieser, statesthat “cultural self-identity and ethnicity hasbecome an increasingly important fourthdimension [of marketing] for the media along withgender, age and personal interests.”

Innovative Launch StrategyPublic Interest Channel

Launch—The successof a cable networkcan be measuredby its ability toacquire distribu-tion, attract viewersand sell itsadvertisingavailabilities.Success beginswith “distribution.”The first step of

BTNC’s distribution strategy was to ensure thatthe network is launched on Dish Network andDirecTV as a public interest channel to 22.5 millionhouseholds. With this subscriber count, BTNCcan aggressively compete for national underwritingand corporate sponsorships. BTNC’s distributionagreement with cable TV giant, Comcast, willenable the network to reach 52 percent of thenation’s African American households.

Widespread Social and Political Support

BTNC has garnered widespread political andregulatory support at each level of government.Three major rulings at the Federal

Communications Commission (FCC)adopted this past summer willsignificantly advance the financialgains of BTNC.

This summer began with theFCC’s announcement of new andvery detailed “programming

carriage” rules that specificallyprohibit cable TV operators

from demanding thepayment of launch

support and/or equityownership of anunaffiliated

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network in return for carriage. This ruling couldsave BTNC millions of dollars. Newscorp paid areported $450 million in what the industrydescribed as “launch support dollars” to secureaccess to 45 million cable TV and satellite homes.TV One, an African American targetedentertainment channel, gave Comcast 49 percent ofthe network’s equity in order to secure its cable TVcarriage.

A major development in the launch ofindependent networks was announced on August1, 2011 when the FCC promulgated its intention to“make it easier for independent televisionprogrammers (such as BTNC) to get their channelscarried on cable system lineups and to preventcable companies from discriminating againstindependent channels that may compete with theirown networks.” Both Time Warner and Comcastprovide nationwide distribution and pay handsomelicense fees (between $.32 and $.75 per subscriber,per month) to their affiliated news channels CNN,CNN Headline News, MSNBC, and CNBC,respectively. BTNC should be affordedcomparable distribution and license fee payments.

The FCC’s most recent decision wasannounced on August 31, 2011 and addressed

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BTNC’s concerns of “channel positioning.”Channel positioning can be vitally important to thesuccess of a newly launched cable network. TheFCC’s ruling requires a cable TV distributor toprovide newly launched news channels, such asBTNC, a favorable position on the channel lineup.Coining the term “neighborhooding,” the FCC hascited the importance of placing a newly launchedcable news network adjacent to (or in the“neighborhood” of) other news channels, such asFox News, CNN, CNBC, MSMBC, andBloomberg News.

At the state and municipal level, BTNC hasbeen offered state sales tax abatement, localfranchise fee abatement, property tax discounts,and payroll tax assistance. In addition, BTNC willbenefit from various job training and employmentassistance programs offered by the District ofColumbia’s Economic Development Counsel.

Multichannel News, subscription television’smost widely reviewed trade magazine, printed aspecial report on ethnic programming recognizingthe dearth of African American programmingcurrently available. The trade magazine’s specialreport stated: “One market that both cable andsatellite seem to be overlooking is African

Americans. While there [are] more than 70Hispanic channels, only a half-dozen specificallytarget African American viewers. And major cableand satellite providers offer no African Americanprogramming packages. That’s despite the fact thatAfrican American customers spend more on cablethan any other group….”

A Creative Plan for Growth BTNC’s Faith-Based Marketing Alliance—

Pollster George Gallup notes that “blackAmericans are the most religious people inAmerica.” Gallup surveys find that 82% of blackAmericans are church members (vs. 67% of whiteAmericans); 82% of black Americans state thatreligion is “very important in their life” (versus55% of white Americans); and 86% of blackAmericans feel that “religion can answer all oftoday’s problems” (versus 60% of whiteAmericans). The eight major black religiousdenominations, alone, encompass more than65,000 churches and more than 30 millionmembers.

Black ministries wield unchallenged influenceover their congregations. Black ministers hold alofty status among their people because they playthe role of “dual interpreter.” Simply put, blackministers are socially “bilingual,” with an ability tocommunicate across racial lines. Likewise, thecultural expectation that ministers cancommunicate across racial lines gives themconsiderable social and political clout.

The black church has startedtransforming itself. The increasing prosperityof African Americans in the 1990’s and consequentmigration to the suburbs has contributed to therise of black “mega” churches. These churches arecharacterized by congregation membershipsranging from 10,000 to 25,000 members, arena-sized sanctuaries, wholly owned businesssubsidiaries, and high-tech television ministries.

Black ministries are being asked to use theirvast resources to promote Black Television NewsChannel to their congregations. African Americanclergymen view BTNC as a “ministry” capable ofreversing decades-old negative media images ofAfrican Americans. Likewise, African Americanclergymen believe BTNC provides a highly credibleplatform for values-based, pro-social messages.

Original Programming—Testedand Proven Audience Appeal

Black Television News Channel creates strongviewer loyalty by instilling a sense of “ownership”among its viewers. The brand identification tag linefor Black Television News Channel is “Our Voice.”By positioning the network as “Our Voice” in themind of viewers, BTNC encourages the perceptionof ownership and involvement. Simply put, ifconsumers feel they have a stake in the product’s

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success and are involved in the product’s design,then they remain loyal to the product.

In a 100-channel plus environment, it is criticalthat the newswheel and prime time featureprogramming contain instantly recognizable andunderstandable content; and the contentcomplements, rather than competes with, thenetwork’s brand identity. The content for each ofthe network’s newswheel modules is based on well-researched African American viewer preferences;and each newswheel module is refreshed every halfhour. Each module’s title, and the title of each ofthe recurring programming segments, incorporatesthe brand’s ownership attribute with the use of theword “our.”

The format for BTNC’s prime timeprogramming consists of flexible “report out”styles, including stand-ups, voice-overs, liveinterviews, archival footage, viewer call-in, andinvestigative reporting. At the same time, therundown is rigid with regularly scheduled segmentswithin each show.

The typical programming day for BlackTelevision News Channel consists of 12 hours perday of news, six hours per day of feature primetime programming, and six hours per day of paid,overnight gospel programming.

The network’s prime time block will featurethree one-hour “news-talk” programs. Each of thefeature “news-talk” programs addresses the social,healthcare, political and topical interests of the daywith entertaining hosts, analysts and special guests.The prime time block repeats from 9 p.m. untilmidnight. Early mornings and other non-primetime feature programs showcase hometown heroes,profile black leaders and address the educational,historical and inspirational needs of black youth.

BTNC’s Cost Saving Content PartnershipNetwork—Black Television News Channel iscreating strong and diverse content partnershipsacross a wide spectrum of news sources. BTNCwill function more as an “aggregator” of AfricanAmerican news from diverse sources and less as a“producer” of news in the traditional sense. A

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number of technological and marketplace factorsafford BTNC the opportunity to tap into a deepand wide pool of content from multiple sources, aswell as produce a high definition news product at afraction of the cost of traditional approaches. ThePolitical Network incorporates live and pre-produced material from the nation’s most respectedAfrican American public policy organizations andthe members of the Congressional Black Caucus.The Education Network utilizes the considerableresources of the nation’s 103 Historically BlackColleges and Universities (HBCUs). TheRadio/Television Broadcast Affiliate Networkcovers every corner of the nation with more than250 local broadcast television stations, cable TVnetworks and radio news affiliates. TheNewspaper/Magazine Network draws on thenation’s oldest federation of more than 200 AfricanAmerican community newspapers and six leadingAfrican American periodicals.

Analysis and Viewpoints—All journalists areprejudiced by their own life’s experiences. Thesebiases can be very subtle or blatantly obvious.Nonetheless, these biases influence the way eventsand news stories are presented to readers andviewers. BTNC is the only television news networkwith news programming gathered, written,produced, and presented “by people of color forpeople of color.” BTNC will provide a uniqueand comprehensive platform from whichAfrican Americans can engage in thepolitical, social andeconomic debate of thecountry. BTNC will bethe true “voice of theAfrican Americancommunity.”

Topics and Focus—Existingbroadcast and cable newsnetworks select news stories and

events that appeal to the broadest audiencepossible, often ignoring stories or news that is ofinterest to African Americans. Unlike other newsnetworks, BTNC provides coverage of events andactivities of specific interest and culturalsignificance to African Americans.

Private-Public Partnership withHistorical Black Colleges andUniversities (HBCUs)

BTNC’s core mission is to produce originaltelevision and broadband content designed toinform, educate, inspire, and empower our AfricanAmerican communities. Whereas this mission,itself, is a noble one, there are also many benefitsthat will be afforded to BTNC’s publicpartners–the 103 Historical Black Colleges andUniversities, including Florida A&M’s renownCollege of Journalism. Some of these benefits arelisted below.

• Facilities upgrade. BTNC will contributemore than $4 million to the improvement andenhancement of the HBCUs’ broadcastingfacilities. The enhancements will include an HDTVstudio upgrade, virtual reality production facilities,and a fully functional newsroom system. Studentswill experience real world skills training in a state-of-the-art broadcast news environment.

• Long-term financial contribution. BTNC willcontribute up to 2.5 percent of itsannual earnings to support HUBCUs’Colleges of Communications.

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• National and international recognition. BTNCwill provide national and international recognitionfor the 103 HBCUs. Faculty, alumni, and studentswill be able to access a mainstream media outlet todemonstrate their talents, talk about theirachievements, promote their causes, and more.BTNC will provide HBCUs the opportunity tohighlight staff, authors, musicians, artists, athletes,inventors, and others.

• Job placement. Employment with BTNC andits affiliated companies will offer HBCU studentsan attractive career in the fields ofcommunications, journalism, television production,marketing, and advertising sales.

• Student fellowship/internship/mentorprograms. BTNC will provide career path trainingthrough a variety of financial and in-kindcontributions.

• Brick and mortar. The renown FloridaA&M’s College of Communications has offeredBTNC unrestricted access to its newly constructedbroadcast facility housed on the FAMU campus.This facility includes eight digital edit suites, twoSony production studios, a sound room, and more.FAMU will also provide BTNC office space for upto 20 of BTNC’s production and engineering staff.Other historical black colleges will house BTNCfield reporters. The FAMU facility, alone, will saveBTNC in excess of $7 million.

• Student talent. Historical black collegestudent talent will conduct research to supportBTNC’s feature programs; populate the Web withblogs; fulfill many of BTNC’s studio productionneeds; produce graphic teasers/bumps; supportBTNC’s part-time field photographers; andsupport the development and maintenance ofBTNC’s broadband offerings. FAMU’s faculty andstudent population can save BTNC more than$500,000 each year.

• Network of “on-air” contributing analysts.Historical black college faculty and alumni willoffer BTNC access to a rich and diverse pool ofacademic experts, analysts and specialists in just

about every area of interest to BTNC’s audience(e.g. health, Constitutional law, economics, AfricanAmerican culture, theology, science, education,history, psychology, etc.). The Association ofHBCU Schools of Journalism has offered toorganize faculty and alumni from 103 historicalblack colleges across the country to support theproduction of BTNC’s daily programming. Accessto this rich and diverse pool of on-air contributinganalysts will save BTNC more than $1 million ofoperating cost annually.

• Charitable giving strategy. Historical blackcolleges are well established and respectedinstitutions serving the African Americancommunity. BTNC’s public/private partnershipwith the historical black colleges will generate agreat deal of goodwill among African Americanopinion elites including local, state, and federallawmakers and regulators.

• Promotion of BTNC programming. Thehistorical black colleges are one of the AfricanAmerican community’s most revered institutions.Second only to our nation’s black ministries,historical black colleges influence the lives of moreblack people in this country than any other venue.This network of college campuses, broadcastfacilities, and alumni publications will enableBTNC to widely promote its educationalprogramming, special events, and broadbandservices.

BTNC.TV Broadband and MobileData Services

Once at the epicenter of the digital divide,African Americans are today 30% more likely todownload video via the Internet than other ethniccommunities. According to the 2011 NielsenReport, 54% of African Americans owned a smartphone, and African Americans tended to beheavier users of mobile data features. The NielsenCompany reports that on averageAfrican Americans utilize

their smart phones more than other demographicsfor features such as texting, Internet access, andmobile video downloads.

BTNC will leverage its promotional propertiesto position its online and mobile data service as thesole destination for African Americans to access allforms of digital ontent. BTNC.TV will provide adynamic platform for African Americans to accessnews in an interactive setting. BTNC.TV’s virtualmall will specifically target African Americans witha wide variety of consumer products, as well asoffer shoppers the opportunity to evaluateproducts and services. African Americans will alsouse BTNC.TV’s social network to expressthemselves on blogs or through user generated(UGEN) video. BTNC.TV, like BTNC’s enhancedTV services, will convert the passive televisionviewer into an active, dynamic user by creating aculturally specific portal capable of providingaccess to information, products, and servicesdesired by African Americans.

ConclusionBTNC commits to provide intelligent

programming that informs and educates, whileserving to entertain, inspire and empower itsAfrican American viewing audience. Theframework for BTNC was tested and provenduring an 18-month trial period that rendered solidoperational models, innovative program concepts,and a highly experienced management team. Acreative and new approach to developingnewsgathering content partnerships and utilizingproduction technologies allows BTNC to generateoriginal programming that caters to the needs,interests, and viewing habits of African Americans,subscription television’s most valuable customer.

Black Television News Channel is an attractiveopportunity for wise investors because evenconservative revenue forecasts show strongfinancial returns and healthy equity growth.Likewise, BTNC’s target audience is, economically,the largest and fastest growing market in thecountry today. So there are both viable industryand market trends that strongly support theintroduction of BTNC to the marketplace andconsiderable demand for the product by theAfrican American community that has grownweary and dissatisfied with programming optionsthat do not reflect the needs, values or reality ofblack men and women.

BTNC plans to launch 35.2 million householdsat the starting gate. This strategy, along with activeparticipation in legislative and regulatory efforts topromote diversity, has gained widespread supportamong elected government officials, consumeradvocacy groups and America’s opinion elite.Building on its unique launch strategy, BTNCcharters new avenues for growth by partnering withAmerica’s black faith-based community andHistorical Black Colleges and Universities to forgean innovative marketing alliance that grows newviewers at a substantial rate.

Finally, Black Television News Channelclenches its success in the marketplace by followingthrough on its original mission. The network setsa high standard of programming integrity byremaining a television news network with newsprogramming gathered, written, produced andpresented “by people of color for people of color”;and nothing less.

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